BBC faces fresh strike action over job losses

By Alan Jones

The BBC is facing a fresh threat of strikes in a row with journalists and technical staff over job losses.

Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Bectu are to be balloted for industrial action after plans were announced to axe 415 posts to save £48m a year by 2016/17. The cuts will be offset by some new roles.

The NUJ called off a strike over pay planned to coincide with the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games last week, but the union warned that action over jobs could hit coverage of other key events such as the Scottish referendum.

General secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “The need to make cuts is the legacy of what everyone now accepts is the disastrous deal by former director general Mark Thompson to freeze the licence fee until 2017.

“The unions have put forward plans which make them fairer and will prevent many talented, dedicated staff from being shown the door, and stopping public money being wasted on needless redundancies.

“Hiring from outside at the same time as making long-serving staff redundant is beyond stupid.

“Creating new roles for managers at the same time as axing jobs for journalists and programme-makers shows the BBC has its priorities all wrong.”